Ellington was fined $5,000 after a prequalifying inspection showed the team was attempting to use dry ice to cool the fuel. Marlin later failed to make the top 20 during qualifying because of a problem with the distributor.

Those problems were erased with a time that topped Cale Yarborough's record of 203.519 mph set Wednesday and would have led the field of 40 had it not come a day late. Marlin will start from the 21st position with the car that qualified third in the Daytona 500.

''It feels real good to set the track record after the troubles we had yesterday,'' Marlin said, adding that the clouds that brought showers delaying qualifying were beneficial to the heat. ''That cloud cover helped a little I guess. The cooler the better.''

Both Marlin and Ellington contended the top performance proved the car was superior without the cooling device.

''This helps make up for all that fuss over the device Hoss set up to cool the gas. That was a lot of fuss over nearly nothing. Cooling the gas wouldn't have helped us that much, and this pretty much proves that. Hoss was just looking for a little edge because he knows other have been doing similar stunts and getting by with it,'' Marlin said.

Ellington, who claims he had to stand in line behind other teams at the ice house, plans to appeal the fine.

Darrell Waltrip, who came in 38th in qualifying, parked the new car and returned to the tried and true to capture the 23rd spot in 199.964 mph.

''Things are going much better for us since we switched cars. We have picked up 6 mph or so, we'll be all right. The other car was a new one, and we just didn't have time to correct it. That's why we brought this car along. It has never finished worse than third here,'' Waltrip said.

The Firecracker 400 will be televised on tape delay by ABC on the Wide World of Sports at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.